Progression
by Kairou Watoshimi
Summary: Light was about to learn that death gods were not as invincible as he had originally thought and that L might not actually be Kira's biggest threat after all.
1. First Impressions

**Apparently, getting back into Death Note meant writing a Death Note / Inuyasha crossover. I'll be using the manga as a base so there might be a few familiar scenes but once it gets to a certain point, the plot will divide. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note, Inuyasha, or any of its characters.**

**Progression  
><strong>**[1] First Impressions**

_What the hell _is _that thing? _Kagome wonders, her face scrunching up slightly as she stares at the large figure hovering over a young man. It obviously isn't human but Kagome is positive it isn't a demon either. She's seen demons before, fought against monsters that people couldn't even begin to imagine but this is the first time she's seeing something so... so... _ridiculous! _It's like cosplay gone wrong with its spiky, fur-like shoulder pelt, belt, pants, heeled shoes, and jewelry! It's even wearing jewelry! Besides its odd choice of garments, the creature's aura also lacks a demonic feel to it, instead it feels darker and far more sinister than anything Kagome is used to.

She then turns her attention to the well-dressed student, jaw muscle twitching at the sight of him. He was good looking—_really _good looking if she is being completely honest with herself—and he seems innocent enough if Kagome is only going to judge him by his physical appearance. Unfortunately, Kagome is more concern about the creature's dark aura swirling around the human's and dominating it quiet ruthlessly. The human is either possessed or in some sort of contract with the creature; she leans towards the latter. Kagome has seen possessions before and he did not seem like a man possessed.

Then, as if sensing her stare, the young man pauses momentarily and without warning, looks up. Their eyes meet.

Kagome immediately pales, pulling backwards in shock. She blinks rapidly, as if trying to clear away her surprise before quickly turning away. Too late. _Not my problem, _she thinks, forcing herself to continue walking, taking great care to make a wide berth around the human-creature duo. _Leave it alone, you're not a hero, Kagome. Leave it alone._

She reminds herself of the hours she had spent studying and studying and _studying _in the last few months of her middle school career after the well's closing just so she could get into a semi-decent high school. She also had not spent three years of high school studying her ass off so she can fail Touou University's bar exam. Higurashi Kagome is on a mission. She is going to get into the best university of the nation, graduate, get a steady job, earn lots of money and live a life. The well had failed her and she isn't going to let her desire for fairy tales and adventure to ruin her hard work.

Ducking her head, Kagome spins around and resume walking. What is she doing worrying about something no one else can see when she has a bar exam she needs to pass. _Not my business, not my business, not my business! _So focused was she in her chant, she didn't notice the man she had been staring at only moments before has caught up with her until his shoulder physically brushes up against her own.

Spiritual powers that had been locked up for so long immediately burst forth, swarming within her at the contact. The amount of _jaki _the man is giving off is staggering and she squeaks in surprise but manages to hold herself in check, squashing down her powers ruthlessly.

"Ah, I'm sorry," the man says, looking down at her with a faint smile. Kagome doesn't care how innocent the man thinks he looks, he had obviously bumped into her on purpose. He is trying to get a reaction out of her

"It's okay," she mumbles, fully intent on speeding up and leaving the human-creature duo behind.

"Are you here for the bar exam?"

Kagome scowls. "Yes." She wants to scoff; why else would someone be here? It's not like class was in session.

"You seem nervous," he comments.

Realizing that she isn't going to be able to leave the man behind without seeming rude—and her mother taught her better than that—Kagome meekly looks up at him, ignoring the dark figure hovering over his other side. "I guess I am," she says. With his natural good looks and light brown eyes, he _seems _innocent. Perhaps he doesn't know that he is being followed and possibly slowly possessed by a supernatural creature. "You?"

"Not particularly," he says with another smile.

The creature laughs, "Of course you're not."

Kagome tenses again but the man doesn't show any indication he had heard the creature speak or noticed her reaction. _Maybe it's some sort of dark guardian angel? _she thought.

"Oh, I'm Yagami Light, by the way."

"Higurashi Kagome," she responds with a nervous smile, doing her best to ignore the creature which was now giggling uncontrollably. "Nice to meet you." She thinks about shutting it up with a pulse of her purification powers but suspects she might also hurt Yagami since the creature's _jaki _and aura is so interwoven into the human's.

"Ah, good luck, Higurashi-san," Yagami says as the two of them approaches the sign-in table.

"Thank you," Kagome smiles. "You too."

"Name?" a receptionist asks gruffly.

"Higurashi Kagome," she responds with a bright smile, pulling out her identification card.

The receptionist handed her a slip of paper with a smile, softened by Kagome's attitude. "Your number is one sixty-two, good luck."

"Thank you," Kagome responds with another bright smile. "I'll need it!" She turns towards Yagami, "What seat are you in?"

"One ninety-two," he answers with a wave of his number slip, lips curling upwards into an almost smirk-like smile. The creature next to him laughs again, this time even louder than before. "That's too bad."

Kagome giggles nervously in response. _Thank god I don't have to sit next to him, _she thinks. _Imagine listening to that laugh while trying to figure out advance calculus._

They wish each other luck one last time before parting ways. Kagome was able to quickly find her seat. "Okay, Higurashi, you can do this," she whispers to herself as she settles down, wiggling around into a more comfortable position. A couple rows in front of her, she notices that the Yagami's creature is floating near Yagami, saying something too soft for her to hear over the noise of the room. She narrows her eyes; is it possible that she was mistaken and that Yagami is a really good actor and can actually see his dark guardian angel or whatever that thing was?

Her attention is then diverted when someone sinks down into the seat next to hers. Kagome blinks and turns, watching as the man pats himself with a soft humming-like nose. "Ah," he exclaims softly, looking around as if he dropped something. He turns towards her and Kagome jerks in surprise as their eyes meet. And she thought the bags under her eyes were bad. "Ah," he tries again. "Do you have a pencil?" He pats himself again as if to emphasis his lack of one.

"Um... Yes, hold on." She digs into her pencil case and hands one to the man.

He takes it, handling it delicately by holding it by its tip with two fingers. "Thank you," he murmurs, biting his thumb nail of his free hand.

She nods and stares, unable to help herself. She has seen a variety number of people before—demons, humans and everything in between—all with different quirks and personalities but this guy has got to be the weirdest by far. _Today's just full of surprises, _she thinks, turning back around so she is facing the front again. This time she ignores the creature still hovering around Yagami; she has another five minutes before the exam starts, she cannot afford to be distracted by creatures she isn't even supposed to see in the first place.

* * *

><p>Yagami Light runs his fingers through his hair, brushing it away from his eyes. It isn't a coincidence; from her interaction with him earlier, Higurashi Kagome is apprehensive of him. Thinking back, Light is positive that he had not been doing anything earlier that would have made anyone want to avoid him to the point Higurashi had attempted to do so.<p>

In front of the room, the exam proctors begins passing out exam sheets and booklets but Light is paying them no mind. He has other things to worry about. Was it possible she can see Ryuk? But hadn't Ryuk explained to him that she needed to touch his Death Note in order to see him?

He glances at Ryuk from the corner of his eyes. The shinigami, knowing Light's discomfort was full out laughing now, much to his annoyance. He'll have to have a talk with the shinigami later.

"Begin," the protor states and immediately the room fills with noise of page flipping and pencil scratching against paper.

Light sighs and turns his attention to his exam booklet. _I'll get this over with and think about her later._

"Student 162," the proctor calls out. He begins making his way towards the back of the room. "Please sit properly."

That is the first time Light has ever heard that kind of statement. He turns his head around slightly; what kind of position does one have to sit in order to catch in the attention of a proctor and actually be call out on it? Bare feet prop up onto the desk and sitting in a slightly hunched manner, Light has a feeling that the student was only at Touou's bar exam just to please his parents. _What a waste of time, _he think, turning back around.

The exam is just as easy as he thought it was going to be, managing to finish it an hour before that ending time. However, he couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched the entire time. _Higurashi, _he suspects. He wasn't planning on killing her earlier but she was acting way too suspicious for his acting. She knows something and Light is not about to take any chances. She may seem innocent despite being as nervous as she was but Light wasn't about to underestimate her. The last time he had underestimated someone, he had revealed the limits to Kira's power to the worst person possible.

Waiting until he reaches a rather isolated street, Light redirects his attention back to Ryuk. "Do you know something?"

Ryuk laughs. "About what?"

_As if he doesn't know, _Light scowls. "Higurashi Kagome. Do you know something about her?"

Ryuk can't help but grin at the question. Although Light's voice gives nothing away, the shinigami knows that Light is more than just a little curious. _To tell or not to tell? _He weighs his options and ultimately decides that telling would be so much more amusing than withholding information. Let the young human panic, let him realize that L is not the only threat to his dreams of a perfect world, let him wander about in the unknown. "I can't see her lifespan."

Light stares at Ryuk in shock. "What does that mean?"

Ryuk taps a clawed finger against his chin. "Well, since human owners of the Death Note can be considered shinigamis themselves, fellow shinigamis are unable to see their lifespans. It's one of our rules, you see." It is also another one of their rules that they weren't allow to tell humans the life spans and names of other humans but Ryuk couldn't see hers so he wasn't actually breaking anything.

"So she owns a Death Note," Light mutters. And by the way she had acted around him, she must have the shinigami eyes which means that she knows he also has a Death Note. With this in mind, Light knows that he would have not choice but to kill her before she killed him. Another Death Note owner would add so much additional variables into his life and with L suspecting families of police officers and him being watched, he can't afford another variable. Besides—

Ryuk giggles again.

"What is it?" Light demands.

The shinigami's grin widened, his lips stretching to their full capacity. "I can't see her name either."

Light freezes. "And what does _that _mean?" Much to Light's annoyance, Ryuk only chuckles happily. Vowing that he is going to withhold apples from the shinigami for an uncertain amount of time in the future. Light eyes the shinigami and tries again, "Did she see you?"

Shrugging a shoulder, Ryuk answers with a nonchalant wave of his hand, "That's impossible. As you know, the only people that can see me are those that have touched _my _Death Note." He rubs his chin thoughtfully. "However, there _are _some humans that are more spiritually aware than others, so it's very possible that she _sensed _me." He cackles delightfully. "But even those humans are rare, just be happy that she was too scared to confront you about it."

But Light is _not _happy, in fact, he is _far _from happy. He makes is way into a familiar cafe and seats himself in his favorite isolated corner. The girl may not be a criminal, but like the FBI agents from before, she is a threat to his utopia and he knew that in order to achieve his dreams, a few sacrifices were necessary.

"Can I get you anything?" a waitress asks.

Light smiles up at her. "Just a plain iced coffee, please."

"Of course," she responds with a smile, leaving to place his order.

Next to Light, Ryuk was thinking to himself. As amusing as the situation is, even the shinigami isn't entirely sure why he can't see her name. If it was only her lifespan, he wouldn't care. There was actually various reasons as to why he can't see someone's lifespan, them being an owner of a Death Note just being the most common one of them.

However, the fact that he can't see her name... now, _that _was something to be concerned about. The only explanation he can come up with was that she isn't a human, perhaps a demon hiding behind a human mask. Although their numbers have dwindled in the past few centuries, Ryuk has been able to spot some every now and then, blending perfectly in with humans. He, however had quickly discarded that possibility when their auras had brushed up against each other earlier. The young woman, although amusing, is nothing more than a simple human, insignificant.

The shinigami scratched his chin again but decided that it didn't matter. She had already caught Light's attention and the young boy managed to not only get her to tell him her name but also verify it when she took out her identification card earlier. Knowing Light, the young girl was going to be dead by the end of the day.

"Here you go," the waitress says, returning and placing down a tall glass of iced coffee in front of Light. "Can I get you anything else?"

"No, thank you," Light responds kindly.

The waitress smiles one last time before leaving. Now that he is alone, Light reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a small sheet of Death Note paper along with a pen from his jacket pocket. Ryuk laughs besides him.

_Higurashi Kagome, _he pens, his handwriting small and neat. It won't do to make her die from a heart attack; L is probably keeping an eye on all heart attack related deaths and would get suspicious. Knowing the detective isn't the usually annoying idiot, Light won't be surprise if L manages to link it back to him. _January 17__th__ 2003. Goes out to buy some snacks at a local convenient store. Does not see an oncoming car and gets run over. Dies at exactly 16:23. _Light leans back, admiring his handy work for a moment before folding the paper and slipping it back into his pocket. He takes a sip of his coffee.

"You seem pretty pleased," Ryuk comments.

"Of course," he murmurs quietly. That's one less problem for him to worry about.

He allows himself a few more minutes of relaxation as a congratulations for a job well done. After ten minutes or so, he decides that he had wasted enough time and quickly finishes the rest of his coffee before putting the money down onto the table. He gets up and makes his way towards the exit.

"Oh!" the waitress exclaims. "Thank you for coming! Come back next time."

Light smiles in response, "Of course, this is my favorite cafe, after all."

The waitress blushes, probably thinking that his comment was subtly hinting at something. He fights the urge to roll his eyes as he turns around. Light reaches for the door handle but before he can even touch it, the door opens and a man steps inside.

Light blinks in surprise. He seriously needs to get his act together if he is planning on not only evading L but killing him too. How was he supposed to do that if he didn't even notice a man standing on the other side of a glass door?

"Oh my," Ryuk breathes, next to him. "What an interesting day."

Light looks up and promptly freezes. There is something about the man that made the fine hair at the back of his neck stand up. He looks average enough but Light knows that he should not ignore his instincts. Besides, Light himself look average but he is going to be the God of the new world. Additionally, there has to be something special about the man if Ryuk was going to comment on him. Light steps to the side giving the man room to go into the cafe but the man doesn't move, choosing instead to stare at Light.

_What?_

The man's lips curls upwards in a smirk that sends an uncontrollable shiver down Light's spine. Brown eyes flickers, looking almost amber in color in the sunlight. And then, without warning, the man looks away and makes his way into the cafe as if nothing has happened in the first place.

_What the hell? _Light thinks. First Higurashi and now him? Was there something on his face?!


	2. Catalyst

**Wow, I was definitely not expecting such an awesome response to my first chapter. I don't usually get that big of a response so it was shocking and heart-warming. I hope you all will continue to enjoy this story. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note, Inuyasha, or any of its characters.**

**Progression  
><strong>**[2] Catalyst**

"Well," Inuyasha mutters gruffly. "It doesn't _seem _like the work of a human but I honestly can't think of a single demon with this kind of ability. How is he killing his victims, anyway?" He spreads out the pile of victim profiles out on the desk in front of him, ignoring his brother's glare. "Besides, no demons in their right mind would go around killing _criminals _as a hobby."

"Obviously," Sesshomaru intones flatly. He flicks the end of one of the papers away from the document he was reading.

"But," Inuyasha continues, "unless there's some sort of drug—even that's unlikely—I really don't see how a human can pull something like this off. It's like a demon with a human mind doing the killing. Or maybe human with super powers?"

Sesshomaru pauses at his brother's words.

"And why heart attacks anyway?" he snorts. "What a pathetic way to kill someone."

"I saw a contracted human earlier today," Sesshomaru interrupts, remembering.

Inuyasha freezes. "Do we have to get involved?" he finally asks after a moment. The last time they had encountered a contracted human, they spent three years chasing the asshole down, two more just trying to kill his damn ass and another five years attempting to cover their tracks so humans wouldn't know the existence of demons. Thankfully, it happened a couple hundred years ago and communication back then consisted of sending letters back and forth so news and gossip were slow to spread. With the technology these days, there is no way they can afford another human-demon contracted duo.

Sesshomaru doesn't answer Inuyasha's question for a few moments, instead he stares unseeingly at the paper littering his desk. "I am unsure," he admits. "In addition, it wasn't a demon the human was contracted with."

"Eh?"

"The human seems to frequent the coffee shop I visit. I will give you a detailed description of his appearance. Find him and keep an eye on him. If he does anything out of the ordinary, if his _creature _does anything out of the ordinary, kill them both." His gaze darkens. "We do not need a repeat of last time."

Inuyasha winces at the reminder. Last time referred to the time when they had come across a demon masquerading around as a human. As suspicious as her actions had been, Inuyasha couldn't bring himself to kill her, especially not with her tear-filled, large blue eyes staring back up at him. His mistake had cost them a year of chasing an innocent looking girl, thirsting for world domination.

"Great," the half-demon grumbles as he slides down, slumping in his seat. There was no need to ask Sesshomaru if he knew what the contracted creature was; if he had, he would have mentioned it. However, that meant, Inuyasha had to be the one doing the dirty work. With another sigh, he reaches out and shoves the papers back into a messy pile. "That means we have to get involved. Let's hope the human idiot contracted with a demon just for good looks or some shit."

Remembering what the creature had looked like, Sesshomaru highly doubts that but decides to allow Inuyasha to have his hopes.

"Contracted humans, Kira," Inuyasha continues to mutter. "What else can go wrong?"

"Also, keep an eye on L."

Inuyasha scowls. "Who the fuck is L?"

"The human detective," reminds Sesshomaru. "If you read the news you would know that he took on the Kira case. If Kira is _not _human, I have no doubt in my mind that L will figure it out." He pulls out the detective's profile and glared at it. "And we cannot afford that." Already, L has unknowingly solved four previously unsolved cases that had demons behind them. Sesshomaru knew that it was only out of pure luck and his quick thinking that L had yet to figure out the existence of demons.

To be completely honest, Sesshomaru isn't even sure if the one who calls himself L is actually human or not. He was basing the entire thing off what he knew of a typical demon's personality and his instincts. Without a photograph or even a real name, there wasn't much about the seclusive human that Sesshomaru knew. Most of what he _does _know are only suppositions anyway. Thankfully, Sesshomaru's name still manages to strike fear among his own kind, only the stupid still dreams of something as pathetic as world domination.

If Kira is human, Sesshomaru can leave the case for L to figure out; he has no intention of getting involved in some psychotic human with a god complex. However, if Kira _isn't _human, Sesshomaru has a feeling that the human detective and him would be crossing more times then he would like.

"I'll have our people look for the contracted human and that L guy or whatever," Inuyasha says. "In the meantime, I'm going to go through these files again. He gets up and goes to leave, ready to bury himself in paperwork again. It was times like this, Inuyasha finds himself wishing that he could go back to five hundred years ago where smiles and laughter was a everyday occurrence. He wishes he could go back and just take in everything and appreciate what he had back then.

"Inuyasha..."

He groans again, hand pausing at the door handle. "What?" he asked moodily, reading through profiles of dead criminals was not a happy thought. Maybe his brother would show some sort of brotherly love and send him on some assassination mission. He brightens up at the thought.

"I caught a hold of her scent."

Inuyasha immediately freezes. He can barely recall her face now but he still remembers a bright smile, blue eyes and her scent. _Oh, her scent. _His heart pounds hard against his chest and he licks his suddenly try lips. "By her, you mean..." His ears twitch madly in anticipation.

Sesshomaru nods once.

_Kagome._

* * *

><p>"—that makes twelve criminals in just the past day. Because of Kira, we continue to see a sharp decline of criminal activity, not only in Japan but around the world. Is Kira—"<p>

Kagome groans. "Next," she grumbles as she changes the channel."

"—with Kira—"

"No." She tries again, this time pressing the button on her remote with more force than necessary. It isn't that she didn't find Kira interesting, but it's one thing to make him featured news and another to make him the _entirety _of all news. _I swear, _she thinks, _if I die because of a typhoon you guys were too obsessed with Kira to report, I will personally bring all hell down on you._

"Like L says, Kira is no god! Kira is a human and no humans have the right to—"

"Again," she interrupts. "No."

"—in other news—"

"If this is about Kira..."

"—Akiyama Saitou was spotted in Japan late last night. For those who do not know, Akiyama-san is the leader of _Ashikoba. _Although they usually keep to themselves and we do not know the exact nature of _what _they do, they are a private group of—what we suspect to be—detectives that help solve cases. Like L, Akiyama-san only takes cases he is interested in. Since he has been spotted in Japan, does that mean he is also interested in the Kira case? Is he planning on teaming up with L to catch—"

_Oh hell, _Kagome thinks, getting ready to change the channel again. In that exact moment, however, the news channel decided to show a picture of Akiyama Saitou and Kagome finds herself staring at the television screen, eyes wide. With short black hair and light brown eyes, Akiyama can easily pass as an average, rich, good-looking business man. But... but... the angle of which the photograph was taken, the outline of the man's cheekbones, the set of his jaw, the _intensity _of his eyes—

"Sesshomaru."

Then, realizing what she had just said—more specifically, whose name she had just uttered—Kagome presses her lips into a thin line and forces herself to shut the television off. _This is it! _she thinks fiercely to herself. _You can't keep doing this to yourself, Kagome! Just because you saw _one _thing that reminds you of the past doesn't mean you can go around trying to recreate it again! _She had made a promise to herself and she intends to keep it, damn it! Unfortunately for Kagome, her mental strength is not nearly as strong as she hope it would be and she finds herself glancing at the blank television screen. _But he really _does _look like Sesshomaru._

Besides, it isn't just Yagami's weird guardian angel thing and Sesshomaru's look-a-like that reminds her of the past, the past where demons and the supernatural dominated. Kagome wouldn't be surprise if the person behind _Kira _was some sort of demon. _But, _Kagome muses, _if Kira really _is _a demon then that must mean that they're still alive today. _However, despite growing up in a shrine, she had never believed—much less, _encountered_—demons before her fifteenth birthday. That must mean that either demons had hid and interwoven themselves into the large human population or—

She freezes; she was doing it _again. _Kagome grabs a cushion sitting next to her off of the couch, stuffs it into her face, and proceeds to scream into it. "Stupid, stupid, stupid—"

"Kagome?"

Her head immediately snaps up at the unexpected voice. "Oh, mama," she says breathlessly, biting her lower lip. "Uh... you're home! Welcome back."

"Is everything all right?"

She scowls at the reminder. "I jut had a very off day," Now, _that _is an understatement. First she met a strange human-creature duo and then the human decided to not leave her alone just because she had stared at him a second too long. Then there was that weird kid who looked like he didn't have a snowball's chance in hell at passing Touou's bar exam but he also hadn't seem especially worried since he spent half the time staring at something or someone sitting in the front rows and the remaining half gnawing off the tip of her pencil. And _then, _to make matters worst, she saw a Sesshomaru look-a-like and proceeded to go through some serious memory-late field trip. Although, to be completely honest with herself, at the rate her day has been going, Kagome wouldn't be surprise if she had hallucinated the Sesshomaru look-a-like.

"I'm sure you did fine on your exam," her mother soothes, wrapping a comforting arm around Kagome's shoulders. "Besides, there's always next time!"

Kagome immediately pales. "Ahh!" she cries out, burying her face right back into the cushion. "What the hell am I doing thinking about other people I should have been thinking about how bad I did on the exam. I'm so stupid!" She looks up and huffs pitifully. "Oh mama, I couldn't even concentrate!"

"Don't say that, you just took it, you haven't even gotten the results back yet."

"I don't need the results," Kagome grumbles darkly. "I can't even remember a single question." She had been too distracted, watching her pencil grow shorter and shorter as student 162 shamelessly gnawed at it like a teething child. Not to mention, there was that creature flying around the room, moaning and groaning about apples.

"Why don't I get started on dinner and you go upstairs and take a nice, long bath?" Her mother asks. "And if you want to talk about it afterwards, I'll listen."

Kagome sighs happily at the thought of a bath; her mother knew her so well. "Actually," she says slowly. "I think I'm going to take a walk; I need to clear my head."

Her mother nods in understanding. "Oh," she says as a thought came to her. "Do you mind going to the convenience store? I've been meaning to buy Souta's favorite egg tarts but I always end up forgetting."

Kagome almost snorts in amusement; Souta loves his egg tarts almost as much as Inuyasha loved ramen. She winces. "Of course," she says finally. "I need to buy some snacks too." She leans out and kisses her mother on the cheek. "I'll be back soon." At her mother's nod, Kagome gives one last smile before jumping off the couch to grab her purse.

"Take your time," her mother calls out after her as she leaves.

"I will," Kagome calls back. _Mama is so understanding, _she thinks, descending down the shrine steps. The winter breeze feels cold against her skin but Kagome slows down anyway, if only to numb the feeling of longing within her. She takes a longer route to the local convenience store, taking her sweet time to just walk and not think about anything in particular. Not the creature, not Kira and most definitely not the Sesshomaru look-a-like.

_It's only four, _Kagome thinks as she wrinkles her nose, glancing at the sky. Even for winter, the sky was much darker than usual. A shudder runs through Kagome's body, making her wish that she had at least grabbed a thicker jacket. Thankfully, she can already see the convenience store just down the street. Maybe she can relax in there for a couple minutes before heading back out into the cold. She was familiar with the store workers; they wouldn't mind.

She shudders again.

Kagome pauses. Breathing deeply, Kagome slowly clutches her hand into a fist, bringing it close to her chest. Something isn't right. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, and Kagome can't point out exactly _what _is bothering her but she is positive that something is wrong. Looking around to make sure that no one is nearby, she uncurls her fingers and extends her arm away from her body. Pink purification powers immediately rises to the surface, dancing on top of the smooth skin of her arm and crackles against the air.

_Something is here, _Kagome thinks, looking around. She feels a bead of sweat drip down the side of her face despite the cool air. _Something dark and tainted._

And it is growing stronger too; the air around begins to feel heavier and heavier with every passing second. Kagome's vision swarms and she stumbles forward onto the crosswalk at the sudden tightening of her chest. She blinks rapidly in an attempt to clear her vision. The last time she had felt something like this was when Naraku had thrown her into the middle of his miasma in an attempt to finish her off, hoping that she was too wounded to purify the thick poison.

Gritting her teeth, Kagome squeezes her eyes shut in concentration for a moment before snapping them open. She gathers up all her wild purification powers together, squeezing them tightly within her before releasing it. It explodes outwards with a loud crack, purifying the dark energy that had occupied the space moments before.

Kagome presses a hand against her chest, breathing deeply. "What the hell was that?" she manages breathlessly.

The sudden sound of a car honking catches her attention and Kagome's head snaps up in shock. _She had stumbled in the middle of the road. _It had been _years _since she had last been in the feudal era, where a moment's hesitation could get one killed. Lacking the instincts and reaction she had back then, Kagome found her tensing and the dark energy she had purified moments ago, returning and locking her muscles in place. She can't move.

Kagome can only stare at the oncoming car with wide eyes, its headlights blinding her.

**Also, I apologize for any grammar mistakes. I try to catch what I can but grammar is most definitely not my strong point. I probably should get a beta-reader but I am writing this story for fun and as a stress-reliever. Having beta-readers will just put pressure on me to have a set update schedule. I hope it doesn't distract anyone from reading and thank you for reading!**


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